The NS Ie Compatibility Fixer plugin for WordPress, used to enhance Internet Explorer compatibility, suffers from a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-14845. This vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 2.1.5 due to the absence of nonce validation on the settings update functionality. Nonce validation is a security mechanism that ensures requests to change settings originate from legitimate users and not from forged requests. Without this protection, an attacker can craft a malicious link or webpage that, when visited by an administrator logged into the WordPress backend, triggers unauthorized changes to the plugin's settings. The attack does not require the attacker to be authenticated but does require the administrator to perform an action such as clicking a link, making social engineering a key factor in exploitation. The vulnerability impacts the integrity of the plugin's configuration but does not directly affect confidentiality or availability. The CVSS 3.1 score of 4.3 reflects this medium severity, with an attack vector of network, low attack complexity, no privileges required, and user interaction necessary. No patches or exploit code are currently publicly available, and no known active exploitation has been reported. However, the vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized configuration changes that could be leveraged for further attacks or to weaken security controls within affected WordPress sites.

For European organizations, the primary impact of this vulnerability is the potential unauthorized modification of plugin settings, which could lead to degraded security postures or enable subsequent attacks such as privilege escalation or persistent backdoors. Since the plugin targets Internet Explorer compatibility, organizations maintaining legacy web applications or intranet sites that rely on this plugin are at higher risk. The integrity compromise could result in altered behavior of the plugin, potentially exposing the site to additional vulnerabilities or operational issues. Although confidentiality and availability are not directly impacted, the indirect consequences of unauthorized changes could affect business operations or data security. The requirement for user interaction (administrator clicking a malicious link) means that targeted phishing or social engineering campaigns could be effective vectors. European organizations with large WordPress deployments, especially those with administrators who may not be fully trained in security awareness, face increased risk. The absence of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate threat but does not eliminate the risk of future exploitation.

1. Monitor for and apply official patches or updates from the NS Ie Compatibility Fixer plugin vendor as soon as they become available. 2. Until patches are released, consider disabling or uninstalling the plugin if it is not essential, especially in environments where administrators may be exposed to phishing. 3. Implement additional CSRF protections at the WordPress level, such as security plugins that enforce nonce validation or web application firewalls (WAFs) that detect and block suspicious POST requests. 4. Conduct targeted security awareness training for WordPress administrators to recognize and avoid phishing attempts and suspicious links. 5. Restrict administrative access to WordPress dashboards using IP whitelisting or VPNs to reduce exposure to external threats. 6. Regularly audit plugin configurations and WordPress logs for unauthorized changes or suspicious activities. 7. Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for WordPress administrator accounts to reduce the risk of account compromise that could facilitate exploitation.